packer43064;3351976; said:
Exactly... but in the engineering field we typical double such numbers... more if human life is at risk in case of failure...
De-Chlorinator- before or after?
- Thread starter Ade
- Start date
Exactly... but in the engineering field we typical double such numbers... more if human life is at risk in case of failure...
jcardona1;3351942; said:
Chlorine is bad for your fish... In low enough concentrations the effect may be negligible... But suggesting chlorine is not bad for fish is untrue and very bad advice...
nc_nutcase;3352009; said:
To be honest it really depends on the fish. When it comes to chloramines I definitely make sure I neutralize everything, but often times I don't use dechlorinator depending on which tank. With my apistos I definitely would dechlorinate, but with my larger SA/CA cichlid tank I do 1 or 2 50%-60% water changes per week with straight tap. It's also a cheap (but risky) way to deal with illnesses. With hardy species such as gars or invasive fish, my marine lab sometimes quarantines with 100% tap. I have yet to see any resulting casualties. It doesn't poison them, but it can cause them stress and discomfort because it burns their gills.
Unless your fish are already/easily stressed, it is my belief that it doesn't matter which order you add the chemicals & water.
Pomatomus;3352031; said:
Stress and discomfort are cause by poisoning. You may not be killing them, but it will hurt them and may cause long-term health deterioration. You should put dechlor in all of your tanks.
I can tell you from my experience, my water was always near perfect 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, very low nitrates, fish happy, healthy, then one gloomy Sunday I did a routine water change and within a short period of time, most of my fish were dead. Took me awhile to figure out what happen, you begin to second guess everything you did that day. It happen a second time, on a Sunday, then it hit me. I tested the tap and it had ammonia in it, I had tested on a number of occasions before on a week day and didn't show any but on a Sunday it definitely was there. Now I'm not sure how fast decholorinator works but any other day of the week, I never had a problem using tap water. I would add decholorinator then fill up with water. Even with dechlorinator it still wasn't enough to remove the ammonia. I think it might be great for removing chorine but not ammonia. I recently bought some Prime to see how fast that works, will test it to see.
I am wondering if there are any case studies of how fast these water conditioners work. Adding water from the tap it's pretty much going to get to the fish, how fast and what impact it will have on the fish is uncertain. My two red tail sharks have what I think are ammonia burns, lost 4 fish the second time which is better then the first time. I will never do water changes on a Sunday again. Now I'm paranoid that it will always be in the tap water so I have to be extra concerned on adding it to the tank.
I usually turn the filter off when doing water changes, not sure if that's the right thing to do or not. The fish definitely get exposed to the tap water regardless of the added water conditioners. Another thing I think if you have perfect water and the fish are use to it, the slightest amount of ammonia is going to stress them. Like a healthy person always eating right then one day they eat junk food, they get sick.
I am wondering if there are any case studies of how fast these water conditioners work. Adding water from the tap it's pretty much going to get to the fish, how fast and what impact it will have on the fish is uncertain. My two red tail sharks have what I think are ammonia burns, lost 4 fish the second time which is better then the first time. I will never do water changes on a Sunday again. Now I'm paranoid that it will always be in the tap water so I have to be extra concerned on adding it to the tank.
I usually turn the filter off when doing water changes, not sure if that's the right thing to do or not. The fish definitely get exposed to the tap water regardless of the added water conditioners. Another thing I think if you have perfect water and the fish are use to it, the slightest amount of ammonia is going to stress them. Like a healthy person always eating right then one day they eat junk food, they get sick.
I use auto water change/ drip system w inline chlroine filters. I doubled the amount of daily water change and lost a 4 yo perfectly healthy fish. All levels were WNL (I dont have a chlorine kit). I have had this happen on 2 other occassions in the past. I beleive the deaths were do to chlorine poisoning or some other additive. Dont underestimate the harmful effects of chlorine......9 out of 10 there may be no harful effects the other 1 time could be loss of your favorite fish.
